Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 3.djvu/169

That, seen, became a part of sight;
And rose, where'er I turned mine eye,
The Morning-star of Memory! 1130

"Yes, Love indeed is light from heaven;^{[lower-roman 1][decimal 1]}
⁠A spark of that immortal fire
With angels shared, by Alla given,
⁠To lift from earth our low desire.
Devotion wafts the mind above,
But Heaven itself descends in Love;
A feeling from the Godhead caught.
To wean from self each sordid thought;
A ray of Him who formed the whole;
A Glory circling round the soul! 1140

Variants

1. Yes/
   If$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ Love indeed $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$doth spring/descend
   be born$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$from heaven:
   A spark of that $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ immortal/eternal
   celestial $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ fire,
   To human hearts in mercy given,
   ⁠To lift from earth our low desire.
   A feeling from the Godhead caught,
   To wean from self $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$each/our$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ sordid thought:
   ⁠Devotion sends the soul above,
   ⁠But Heaven itself descends to love
   Yet marvel not, if they who love
   ⁠This present Joy, this future hope
   ⁠Which taught them with all ill to cope,
   No more with anguish bravely cope.—[MS.]

Notes

ζωοῖσιν ἑῷος, which Byron prefixed to his "Epitaph on a Beloved Friend" (Poetical Works, 1898, i. 18), and which, long afterwards, Shelley chose as the motto to his Adonais.

1. [The hundred and twenty-six lines which follow, down to "Tell me no more of Fancy's gleam," first appeared in the Fifth Edition. In returning the proof to Murray, Byron writes, August 26, 1813, "The last lines Hodgson likes—it is not often he does—and when he don't, he tells me with great energy, and I fret and alter. I have thrown them in to soften the ferocity of our Infidel, and, for a dying man, have given him a good deal to say for himself,"—Letters, 1898, ii. 252.]